How Did F Scott Fitzgerald Use Cars In The Great Gatsby

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby he uses many themes from events going on during the time period it was written, the 1920s. The characters in the book show off their cars and expensive alcohol. Fitzgerald in his book the Great Gatsby uses Automobiles, and the prohibition to show how materialistic and judgemental people are.

In the 1920’s automobiles were becoming more and more popular. They were becoming cheaper, and more accessible to the working class. This was partially due to Henry Ford’s invention of the assembly line wich made cars cheaper to produce. Other American car companies started to do the same, so there were even more options for middle class families. Most of these affordable cars were all very similar in style,

He had a car described as “rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrus length with triumphant hat-boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of wind-shields that mirrored a dozen suns. Sitting down behind many layers of glass in sort of green leather conservatory” (Fitzgerald 64). This shows how extravagant and flashy Gatsby’s car was. He loved driving that car and showing it off. Nick says when asked by Gatsby if he had ever seen it before “I’d seen it. Everybody had seen it” (Fitzgerald 64). Another wealthy character with a nice car was Tom Buchanan. He has a blue coupe, which was also very flashy and fast. These characters are very proud of their cars, and show them off to show them off and let others know that they have a lot of money. One other character that Fitzgerald used to show that people are materialistic was George Wilson. Tom told him that he was going to sell him his car, so he had an excuse to stop at see his mistress Myrtle Wilson. George was very upset when Tom continued to put off selling his car to him. He needed the car to sell, because he needed money, because he wanted the money to spend on his wife